


Waking nightmare

by hypnodisc



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Nightmares, Schizophrenia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 15:19:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4226847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypnodisc/pseuds/hypnodisc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Voldemort is dead, and Harry is mad, but the horcrux speaks to him in his dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking nightmare

Dreaming.  
The bones in the forest never rest  
The smoldering remains of a battle I think I -   
and the white wind stripped him of his face, before.  
I don't always dream of this.  
And I never remember, either.  
He is quite handsome, this time.  
I tell him.

Changing scenery  
it is always when I'm not looking.  
A school, a cave, my -   
Now it's a forest, silent, and the light hits him just so-  
He smiles beguilingly. opens his mouth to -  
NO! I tell him. The bones. Scurrying amongst the leaves.  
The roots - pushing up through my boots, worming through my skin, into my veins, pulling harshly  
barbs hooking into vital membrane.  
Roots. Swelling with blood. Red-  
the leaves grow heavy with it, block the light  
and the air is thick with wet darkness  
without the flattering light, his face -   
I am breathing quickly. I want to shout, but if I do, a branch might push its way out through my mouth  
Anchored, my body will feed the silent insects  
my bones in the forest, rustling.

His voice emerges from the rushing panic in my ears  
no words, just soft sounds.  
gently urging me to sit, he conjures a log.  
Something solid.  
moving gracefully through the clearing, putting together a fire  
to ward off the deadly blackness, to reflect sparkling in his eyes  
as he kneels beside it, opening his mouth to-  
I don't want him to talk. He can't. I -   
his dark eyes scan my face, he reassures me without words, face softening, and rocking backwards, meaning I won't - but -  
something. I think - red eyes. Yes. Blood red, with a slit pupil. They are dark now. But he's not -  
I was only half-listening as he began to hiss "Whatever it is- something broken"  
eyes focused on the dreamscape now, flickering  
Who is that screaming, now?  
Oh.   
I am screaming, not breathing, there's no need for breathing, just one, continuous -

 

Before I surfaced, he was telling me to stay  
that it was just a dream, that I didn't need to fight it  
that he couldn't hurt me.  
Black smoke rolling down the hill  
"no-" he said "fog! Sweet early morning fog! The gentle breeze is-"  
but the coiling blackness charged towards me,  
and it was all I could do to turn away a little  
but not to avert my eyes.

This morning, I woke up  
in that dramatic TV-nightmare kind of way  
kicking at my sheets and twisting away from-  
"I just want to talk. Will you listen?"  
he asked, as the earth trembled and the air screamed  
low pressure, fear, eyes impossibly big inside my skull  
which vibrates, my jaw aches suddenly as my muscles-  
Am I awake? Please! It can't -   
I blink, and he's the same.  
Here. He's in my -   
In his dark eyes, a false, placating calmness  
and.. nothing. He is - must be -   
black hair, pale skin, nose a little flat, lips a little thin  
solid, in dark robes that wrinkle under him where he sits on the bed.  
The very real physicality of this manifestation is far from reassuring,  
but you can understand my reluctance to turn away for fear of what he might be  
when I stop looking.  
Some disembodied voice, but in MY body  
winding around my neck,  
inside my ears  
in my throat as I breathe past -   
without a source  
omnidirectional or something -   
From INSIDE  
It's a dream it's a dream it's a dream  
I can't escape from his -

**Author's Note:**

> When this started, it was supposed to be a botched obliviate, but HPLV is my OTP, so instead I hope you can read this as the horcrux attempting to help him to heal his mind. That's ruined all of that lovely ambiguity for you, hasn't it? Good.


End file.
